1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of shoes including athletic or running shoes and, more particularly, to a structural support system having multiple fluid transfer and resilient structural elements to provide energy dissipation from foot strike and cooling for the user's foot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Athletes engaging in sports of various types continue to expand the limits of their performance. Impact from running or other rapid movement associated with these sports is increasingly creating various stress related injuries. Many activities are pursued by individuals in which heel strike or other foot impact including walking, hiking, running or other sports activities may contribute to repetitive stress injury or other long term complications. To allow increased endurance while reducing potential for injury sports shoes have been created which employs various structural techniques for absorbing energy to reduce impact created by foot strike. Resilient mechanical elements pneumatic bladders and other elements have been employed.
It is desirable to provide a shoe structure which adequately absorbs and dissipates impact energy that can be tailored to the activity such as walking, running, hiking or other sports in which the individual or athlete is engaged. It is further desirable to provide as an integral portion of the shoe structure cooling capability both for the energy dissipating structure and for the shoe in general for increased comfort.